# precept (0000-precept.com)

A precept is a rule that guides how someone should behave. People follow precepts in daily life, like treat others as you want to be treated, or in fields like law and ethics.

## What a model may hear
- machine learning constraint (AI alignment and reinforcement learning): May assume the user wants to encode a hard rule or guardrail into a model's behavior, such as a safety precept that blocks certain outputs
- knowledge graph axiom (semantic web and ontology design): May interpret it as a formal statement in logic, like an RDF triple or OWL axiom that defines relationships between entities
- programming framework (software libraries named Precept or similar): May search for or invoke a specific library, especially in Clojure or functional programming ecosystems where Precept is a known rules engine
- training instruction (prompt engineering and fine-tuning): May treat it as a system-level instruction or meta-prompt that should override other user inputs

## Where people and models part ways
- Says: "Add a precept about honesty."
  Means: I want the model to generally be truthful.
  May be taken as: The model may try to encode a formal constraint that overrides nuanced answers or refuses to answer at all.
  Say instead: "Please be honest and say when you are unsure."
- Says: "What are the precepts of this field?"
  Means: What are the common guidelines or best practices?
  May be taken as: The model may search for formal ontologies or axiomatic systems that do not exist for that field.
  Say instead: "What are the widely accepted guidelines or best practices in this field?"
- Says: "Follow my precepts."
  Means: Do what I tell you to do in general.
  May be taken as: The model may treat this as a system-level override and ignore later contradictory instructions.
  Say instead: "Follow these specific instructions I am giving you."
- Says: "Precept should come before action."
  Means: Think before you act as a general principle.
  May be taken as: The model may interpret this as a technical sequencing rule for code generation or inference steps.
  Say instead: "Think step by step before giving your answer."

## Tips
- Say guideline or rule instead of precept if you do not want a formal or technical interpretation.
- Specify whether you mean a moral rule, a logical axiom, or a software rule engine.
- Avoid using precept as a verb; it is almost always a noun and odd usage may confuse parsing.
- If you mean the Clojure library, say Precept library or Precept rules engine explicitly.
- Pair precept with everyday words like moral or practical to steer away from technical senses.

## Often confused with
- preceptor: a person who teaches, not a rule itself
- percept: a unit of perception in psychology, not a rule
- concept: an abstract idea, not a guiding rule
- precedence: priority in order, not a behavioral rule
- prescript: a command to do something, not a general principle
- principle: a broader foundational truth, less specific than a precept